Monday, June 20, 2011

Removal of 5 dams and installation of fish ladders on 4 other dams is intended to improve habitat for endangered salmon.

"Here at Battle Creek, an icy stream that tumbles off Mount Lassen, state and federal agencies are spending $128 million to bring endangered salmon back to 48 miles of water blocked by dams for nearly a century. At the same time, another arm of state government is allowing clear-cut logging on thousands of acres just upstream, which some scientists say could jeopardize the costly restoration project." (Troubled waters of Battle Creek - Sacramento Bee 19june2011)

"By law, the cumulative impacts of similar logging projects in the same area must be analyzed, but this has been circumvented by using a subwatershed system, breaking the part of the watershed that SPI owns into smaller areas using the tributaries of Battle Creek, even though they all flow into Battle Creek. This is the basis of the misuse and avoidance of the laws and rules that, on paper, were supposed to stop excessive clear-cutting from happening." (Marily Woodhouse, Battle Creek Alliance)

"by subdividing the watershed into 9 subwatersheds each of the 16 timber harvest plans has been evaluated as if it were the only project. This is illegal as well as ecologically disastrous." (thebattlecreekalliance.org)